It was founded at the site called "Vieux Montiers" (Old Monastery) by its first abbot, Eustache, around 1135. Originally a house of Augustinian canons, it adopted the Cistercian rule on 30 May 1144. The monastery was moved to its final location, where its ruins are still found, around 1155. Eustache was assisted by a co-abbot, Gervais, and together they greatly expanded the abbey's temporalities. Towards the end of the century, the abbey was embroiled in controversy over land with the lords of Possesse and Dampierre-en-Astenois, especially Lord Renard II of Dampierre.[1] Its abbot, Amadeus, was even deposed. It had lands and farms in Guidonval, La Basse-Cour, Rotonchamp, Valdivière, Le Saussy, Hurtebise, Bronne, Bouët and Outrivière in Noirlieu, Épensival in Épense, Lalieue in Remicourt, Notaval and Letemple.
^Theodore Evergates (ed.), Feudal Society in Medieval France: Documents from the County of Champagne (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), pp. 120–22.